The Need to Build A New Model

From the Renaissance to the November 2010 G20 Meeting – and how far have we come? Well, we started in the 16th Century by creating a
manifesto for a birth of the new human self with possibilities for
exploring and unveiling creative horizons. This energetic spurt,
however, instead of leading to a new golden age of civilization
eventually morphed into the hungry coal pits of England and the grab for
industrial resources as nations entered the rapid spurt of mechanical
growth. The technological age in which we are now living is a product of
this expansion – from wood, coal, steam, oil, electronics to the
digital age – all the time fuelled by the declining resources of fossil
fuels. Humanity is now at a critical crossroads where another energetic
spurt is required in order for us not to enter a post-industrial period
of decline and contraction, much like what occurred after the fall of
the Roman Empire.

Ours is now largely an interconnected global civilization that has a case of ‘the shakes’ as it wobbles between a possible transmutation from
a now deteriorating materially-based culture into a more
conscious-orientated ideational culture; or further into decline. This
transition can be metaphorically outlined as similar to a rites of
passage, an initiatory period, a hero’s dark journey through the
underworld, as the collective consciousness of humanity interiorizes
this transition from old world to new world. Many of the leading nations
are attempting to keep a reign on the old world and its heavier
energies of materiality, consumption, fear and insecurity, in order to
remain in control. This strategy, in the face of deteriorating systems
(financial, social and political) and infrastructures (energy and
food/water resources) is a recipe for greater strife and breakdown.
However, these last ditch attempts (a dying gasp) to retain control over
a rising consciousness within humanity will eventually fail. Or rather –
it must.

Plato wrote that humanity could only know the ‘real’ world in the form of memories; by what he termed anamnesis, meaning the recovery of
buried memories, both individual and collective. Plato insisted that all
thought was recollection, and that humankind generally existed within a
state of collective amnesia, having only fragments of recollection as
reference points for reality. Human consciousness today is akin to a
fragmented mind trying to regain its full memory – to return to a full
working capacity. Its slumber has been supported by our social systems
that have until now provided for most people in the developed
nations…but now that is changing. The slumber is being disturbed – and
this is good. These times will act as a catalyst, an alarm bell, to
dispell our collective amnesia. However, first, we need to lose
something – something of value. Perhaps these coming years will see that
loss…in exchange for an awakening? The alternative would be something
akin to what well-known sociologist Anthony Giddens described as a
‘juggernaut careering at full-speed towards the edge of a cliff’.

And then the G20 will be in a whole different ball-park: and we’ll be in another. Let us remember the words of Buckminster Fuller:

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

Tags: future, social

Comment

You need to be a member of WorldShift 2012 to add comments!

Join WorldShift 2012

Comment by Kingsley Dennis on December 18, 2010 at 10:29am: Thanks Robin - I didn't know this. Fuller's quote is a model for the change needed - no wonder it is being used in these contexts. I have been looking at your Renaissance2 site...social innovation resources that interest me. Perhaps we shall make further contact in the future - thanks for the initial feedback.

Comment by Robin Wood on December 17, 2010 at 6:57am: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”- Kingsley, that is the quote we started Renaissance2 Foundation with- see www.renaissance2.eu for more details. Regards, Robin

Comment by Kingsley Dennis on December 15, 2010 at 4:02am: Thanks for the info Tyler, and I agree on your points. There is no use in banging heads against the present system - as Bucky Fuller said, we need to start working on a new model ourselves...and gradually more and more people might start shifting over. If we just sit around screaming and shouting, we are no more prepared than others. We get on with our lives, only that now we have different priorities. When I did the research for my book 'After the Car' (which came out 2009) I was surprised - or rather educated - about the actual situation going on in the world with regard to resources..or lack of! It made me want to change my existing life... so now I have moved to the countryside of Andalusia - I have an adequate 2000 sq metre holding; I live off water mains but have a fully-functioning 30 metre water well that supplies the house & grounds. I started planting my own vegetables this year..and plant enough to pass on/swap, or sell some to local friends..I have olive and fruit trees, and this year swapped 100 kg of my olives for olive oil at the local mill...the house has no central heating but is fueled by one open fire and one iron stove..wood is easy to get here and cheap to buy...I am now thinking of maybe building an outside brick oven as another resource.....cooking and hot water is provided by butane gas...the only grid-connection is my electricity, which is minimal, and am thinking on how to bypass this for the future.... I have a good community of friends here - all spanish - and the resources in Andalusia are good since it is principally an agricultural state... 'Live simply so that others may simply live' .....these are early days - I have only been in this property for 10 months - yet inch by inch we move forward, both physically and in ways of perceiving the world... the 'nuts & bolts' as you say...

It may be 'mission impossible' to change the world, yet I do honestly feel we all contribute by the individual energies - physical & mental - we put out into the world....learning to work together, learning new skills, and appreciating a world that is beyond the corporate media and techno-trance... We may all be required to learn new skills for the future...yet humanity is adaptive. I have no real idea of how the world will turn out, only the indications we have at present...so I start by putting myself in the 'right frame of mind'...

Your 'Earth Embassy' sounds like a place of growth and a model for new learning..a place of resourfulness and hopeful living.....Thanks for the invite...and I don't expect anyone to pay - perhaps one day I'll be able to come on my own steam...

I do agree with 'right action' - and unlike some quarters in the world, this action doesn't necessarily need to be loud - sometimes the quiet workers are the most efficient! I know of friends who are building similar communities in South America (Brazil, Chile)...ink spots...working at the situation....passing it on....

Have appreciated this chat!

Comment by Tyler Stowell on December 14, 2010 at 8:01am: Hahaha, thanks for the comments. I like to see myself as an equalist (is that a word?) just doing my part and following an inner desire, that I hope most of us have. I honestly think this is heaven that we are living on and all we need to do is tighten some loose screws and bolts here and there. Yes living naturally is rewarding but has proven to be very difficult so i can see some serious implications trying to change the general way of life in society today on a global scale. It could create tremendous chaos because due to our quick technological advancements we have almost entirely forgotten our old skills that led humanity through the previous ages. I mean how many people can farm, build, survive... etc... majority of populations are completely dependent on the system, now if the system were to break down i see much suffering ahead of us. I really hope things do clear up and people wake up but I must agree a bit with Steve. We need more initiative and action, as it feels time is running short. I dont think we should try and fight the system but more prepare for the worst and link with like minded individuals. Its mission impossible to change the world but all of us people on this network are already there, we just need to do our best to keep good relationships with everyone and stay connected. Sharing important information as we are, and as Steve may be pointing to... getting some actual work done.

Back to the island, i appreciate the suggestion, in fact we are already there, and growing a variety of teas =P

We have 6 lodges and will begin construction on one more this summer. We just got a new 17 footer boat, so we can start hauling some larger recycled materials for more construction and advancements to make life easier.

Let me tell you a bit of history about the island. It was originally Government Crown Land, they were loggin the crap outta it for centuries. However there was priceless evidince of its previous Native Indian inhabitants. 700 year old trees that were planked and used by ancient Natives. My good friends father, one of the founders of GREENPEACE researched and lived on this island for 20 years finally winning the island back to the local surrounding natives. In there recognition they lease us the island free of charge and fully support our movement and projects.

People from all over the place come by, especially in the summer, we have SEA SHEPHERD coming by every summer, and its quite a international hub for free thinkers. We have named the place EARTH EMBASSY, for a number of reasons, Im sure you could imagine why.

We are preparing for the worst, as predicted by many of our good friends and intellectual thinkers. If the worst were to occur we just hope to get through it and keep this new model going. I think in times of hardship people will be much more available and open to different ways of thinking. In this delicate time it could be our best chance at reaching out to the people and sending our message. Hope is sometimes all we have.

Anyways, we have been working on a few funding projects but most of which are just getting us by. I would love to pay for your flight out but until we are more successful in our business side of things all I can offer is accommodation. If you would be able to work out paying for your own flight, im sure you wont regret it. It would be nice to try and get alot more people out from this networking site and meet in person to make some real time discussions on the current Global Emergency.

Comment by Kingsley Dennis on December 14, 2010 at 3:48am: Steve, all questions are worth asking, and I would say you are definately not "in an unenlightened mindset". I agree that perhaps none of us have the answers... You ask - 'How will a decentralized, world-centric, benign and enlightened big brother look like?' I don't know...and I'm not sure how we can arrive there....such change, I feel, will happen in stages. it won't be a grand 'zap' - like some ascension or rapture process...certainly no sudden disappearance into the 5th Dimensional ethers! No, we all have to work towards this...and as the cracks appear; as the systems fail; the infrastructures stop functioning; as corruption is more transparent and people more angry; we will all start to search for answers to serve us better...and in the upcoming decades there will be a greater resistance to the old order (the old energy) and more support for real change...and by degrees a more enlightened thinking will begin to manifest in pockets of change over the world...and then, perhaps the rest will be up to the next generation of human pioneers....

Tyler - it appears to me you are already on the escalator of change, a pioneer towards a better life.A small self-sustainable island! This is a new model, working back with the resources that nature provides...energy being the prime resource...the sweat lodge is a good idea: keeping human spirit together when it gets tough! Perhaps in the future you should think of building a communal tea-house (or 'caravanserai) where not only can the community meet together under one roof, but also have a couple of beds there for any invited (or uninvited!) guests to stay whilst in your community.....

I would like to chat more too - thanks for the invite but I am nowhere near Vancouver - I am in Andalusia, in the south of Spain....but I'd like to know more....

Comment by Tyler Stowell on December 13, 2010 at 8:00am: Kingsley Thank you for your quick and informative reply. I found this information very useful and I will be using this in a global awareness meeting I will be holding in Canada this coming Summer. I really wish you could come out and speak at our lecture... Are you located anywhere near Vancouver?

We have a small self sustainable island, I suppose this is an ideal new model, but unfortunately its still a rough life there, as the main community is surviving of collected rain water, small farm and natural harvest. We were able to get a solar panel last year so now we can begin on steps to make life a little more accommodating.

However most of us prefer the natural WAY, we often try to find natural solutions to the problems that can oftenly make life more difficult in such an environment. For example, we have made a sweat house to keep up moral in the winter and working on building a copper core to funnel water through a fire giving us HOT bath.

Most of the people are vegetarians yet meat is sometimes an important part of the diet so we are starting to research into smoking techniques that will give us an ability to preserve meats for extended periods of time. I would really like to share more details with you about this place but there is just so much!

Comment by Steve Varga on December 9, 2010 at 8:11am: I agree with 100% about the change having to start with the grassroots and it will be a long, and for many, painful and uncomfortable process. There is no other way... (short of some cataclysmic event grand shift event)

But its difficult to see how an organic and granular change in mindset evolves into a workeable global order without proactive leadership and direction. Materialism has to go, but getting rid of materialism seems impossible without getting rid of our monetary based system. Once the money is gone, incentives for corruption will slowly evaporate. But even without money, how do we change the behavior of people in power? I see a whole can of worms exploding with the practical implementation of such a system. Elected officials nearly always represent the local interest of their constituents to guarantee reelection. Can and will locals elect officials who are looking out for global good instead of local? By what omnipotent global council would such a world-centric soci-economic-political structure be ruled and regulated?
How will a decentralized, world-centric, benign and enlightened big brother look like?
A whole myriad of questions start tumbling as soon as I start to think practically...

Maybe i'm not asking the right questions. Or maybe I'm still in an unenlightened mindset, a beta version of a higher level of consciousness for whom this will later become completely obvious...

Comment by Kingsley Dennis on December 9, 2010 at 4:17am: Thank you for the comments; and Tyler, building a new model will not be a quick process, nor perhaps even comfortable - and I suspect it will involve making a shift in our thinking first. If we focus only on the exterior, we are in danger of replacing one physical system with another, with the same ego-materialistic drives. A new model will need to integrate a more interior-exterior balanced approach, whereby we have to 'work on ourselves' as well as relying upon external forms. Not only do we consume less, live within our means, reject a consumerist-driven psychological system that bullies us into credit-conforming - but we also project a 'different state of being' onto our lives, actions, and people around us. We need to project a different order into our daily actions - to get our own house in order before we start throwing bottles at G20 meetings. Our world will react to individual ink spots, that each grows, working externally locally at first, yet internally with a planetary consciousness, helping all the ink spots to expand and converge. We are creating anomalies here...until the anomalies have sufficient presence and energy that they begin to shift the static paradigm (using Kuhn's language). We have to work at being human....at retaining our own personal power...and step by step we put our actions into our world - in the people we meet, how we live - and how we think and behave. We might be surprised to find that change doesn't need to come through a world organization or a grand meeting... but through the mindful actions of each individual...to seed a new thought energy into how we live... this may not stop our changing world... yet we will come through as an adaptive, conscious-minded species, to live better within a world in transformation... like our body on impact, don't flex the muscles before the hit, relax them.... and absorb the impact.....then grow stronger.....

Comment by Tyler Stowell on December 7, 2010 at 4:21am: Dennis just a quick question, what do you suppose this new model should be and how do you think it could be integrated into society today?

Comment by Steve Varga on December 6, 2010 at 10:25am: "However, these last ditch attempts (a dying gasp) to retain control over a rising consciousness within humanity will eventually fail. Or rather – it must."

Must it? That is the question we must believe is not really a question...

As soon as we reach a tipping point of enough people knowing that things will change, we will have finally chosen our path. Right now I believe humanity is still at the decisive crossroad.

We must reject and counter any of the notions continuously bombarding on us through politics and the media that human nature is inherently selfish, inherently animalistic, and that proper morals and thus behavior can only come through proper systemic control. And we must do that just as the very last thought in this essay so rightly put: "...build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”